KeGongFang, Dongba Paper Workshop in Lijiang

The pace of life in Lijiang is slow.   The rountine alarm clock did not set up as my working day, I still wake up quite earlier as usual.  After staying so many days in Lijiang, gave up the hope to find a good coffee shop in town, my instant coffee was nothing but to warm me up.  The open Naxi style courtyard in my hotel was a nice place for good reading in the morning.

Buying from the food chart from local farmer, I only spent 3 yuan for my breakfast!  He gave me two dumplings and a cup of bean milk from his bike, told me that his business was not good in winter time.  Well, highly recommend everyone to buy foods from locals, rather than buying from those bloody shop owners around the square streets, many of them are not Naxis, selling things from foods to tourist souvenirs which are so semilar that you can buy from any Chinese cities.

Dongba Paper Workshop
I walked around the Eastern Street again and again, but could not find a place named as KeGongFang.  It has been mentioned in many travel books, a workyard where traditional way of paper making can be found…Asked some shop owners, but they have never heard of it…from their accent I knew they were all from other parts of China, rent a place and had their own business here, no idea of this type of old workyard.  An old lady selling fried fish on the roadside told me that KeGongFang was not existed any more, the old house has been renovated into shops and restaurants…I was so disappointed. 

The story is like this: there are ten Dongba Paper Shops in old town of Lijiang, selling good quality rice papers, and the papers all come from a major workyard in Yongcun village nearby, but there is a workshop on Xinyi Street, a presentation of the traditional procedure of Dongba Paper making is available.  Better than nothing!   I followed the instructin, turned east into a narrow lane, tried to find the local faces for road direction in more detail, and eventually I was there.